Britain's Best Racing Cyclist

rob_spedding
rob_spedding Posts: 442
edited February 2009 in The bottom bracket
The votes from our ad hoc SPoTY vote are in and Cookie, Sir Chris and Cav were the overwhelming favourites...we like them all here at Cycling Plus, but who's best? Nicole was in the year below Gavin Henson at Byrnteg Comprehensive, Chris loves Bran Flakes ("On yer bike...") and Mark used to enjoy ballroom dancing. There's only one way to find out...f...oh alright another poll.
Rob Spedding, Editor, Cycling Plus

Comments

  • pbt150
    pbt150 Posts: 316
    Got to be Cav - look at the number of stages he won last year!
    FTT
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  • nickwill
    nickwill Posts: 2,735
    Another for Mark Cavendish!
    http://lakescyclist.wordpress.com/
  • don key
    don key Posts: 494
    Mild mannered Mark.
  • iain_j
    iain_j Posts: 1,941
    Hmm. To me they're all the best in their own side of the sport - Cav in men's road racing, Cooke in women's and Hoy on the track. Can't really pick an overall best cos what they've all done is incredible in their own right.
  • Red Rock
    Red Rock Posts: 517
    cookewin_ap.jpg

    For me the overall best must be Nicole, but I believe Mark as the ability to become one of the greatest names in cycling.

    Red Rock
  • Bronzie
    Bronzie Posts: 4,927
    Sure Cav is a great sprinter, but is he a "racer" in the same way Nicole is? All of his wins have been sprint finishes I think, whereas Nicole is more of an all-rounder with the ability to read a race and know when to attack. I'll vote for her for this reason.
    It's a Lifestyle! -+-+- Coggan Training Levels
  • alecstilleyedye
    alecstilleyedye Posts: 1,170
    cooke for me too.
    riding on my bicycle, i saw a motorcrash…
  • edhornby
    edhornby Posts: 1,741
    Bronzie wrote:
    Sure Cav is a great sprinter, but is he a "racer" in the same way Nicole is? All of his wins have been sprint finishes I think...

    Yeah, and that Cippolini - he wasn't a bike racer cos he couldn't ride hills...

    Cav will get better and better - and given boonen's comments about 'Cav can't win the Paris Roubaix' I'd love to see him stuff that one down his neck as well
    "I get paid to make other people suffer on my wheel, how good is that"
    --Jens Voight
  • Airwave
    Airwave Posts: 483
    Cav's a great sprinter,but for me it got to be Nicole as she was'nt "launched"in the same way for her wins.Horses for courses i suppose though.
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  • Bronzie
    Bronzie Posts: 4,927
    edhornby wrote:
    Yeah, and that Cippolini - he wasn't a bike racer cos he couldn't ride hills...
    He certainly wasn't an all-rounder. A fantastic sprinter yes, and Cav is in the same vein, but to me a win is more impressive if it's a solo attack, or sprint from a small group, requiring the ability to read the race, rather than depending on a lead out train.
    It's a Lifestyle! -+-+- Coggan Training Levels
  • meagain
    meagain Posts: 2,331
    Surely none of them?
    Beryl Burton?
    Tommy Simpson?
    d.j.
    "Cancel my subscription to the resurrection."
  • Jez mon
    Jez mon Posts: 3,809
    Tom Simpson!
    You live and learn. At any rate, you live
  • JC.152
    JC.152 Posts: 645
    Bronzie wrote:
    Sure Cav is a great sprinter, but is he a "racer" in the same way Nicole is? All of his wins have been sprint finishes I think, whereas Nicole is more of an all-rounder with the ability to read a race and know when to attack. I'll vote for her for this reason.

    Cavs won more prologues on the road than Wiggins :wink:
  • symo
    symo Posts: 1,743
    Jez mon wrote:
    Tom Simpson!

    Yes because without him there would be no doping control whatsoever. :twisted:
    +++++++++++++++++++++
    we are the proud, the few, Descendents.

    Panama - finally putting a nail in the economic theory of the trickle down effect.
  • rob_spedding
    rob_spedding Posts: 442
    meagain and Jezmon - it's current racing cyclists....
    Rob Spedding, Editor, Cycling Plus
  • softlad
    softlad Posts: 3,513
    there cannot be a 'best' between those three - because they are all at the top of their own discipline.

    a bit like asking who is the best motorcyle racer - Valentino Rossi, Stefan Everts or Nicki Pedersen
  • redddraggon
    redddraggon Posts: 10,862
    softlad wrote:
    a bit like asking who is the best motorcyle racer - Valentino Rossi, Stefan Everts or Nicki Pedersen

    Got to be Rossi, the other two are made up aren't they? :wink:
    I like bikes...

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  • NaB
    NaB Posts: 105
    Robert Millar without question - no Brit before or since rode like he did in the mountainous tour stages...why isn't his name on the voting list??? British KOM winner - need I say more??
  • NaB
    NaB Posts: 105
    Robert Millar without question - no Brit before or since rode like he did in the mountainous tour stages...why isn't his name on the voting list??? British KOM winner - need I say more??
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,666
    Yesterday it was Bradley Wiggins.

    Today it's Roger Hammond.
  • padonbike
    padonbike Posts: 46
    Robert Millar. Robert Millar. Robert Millar.
    Pure class. Always was, always will be.

    As cool as Pantani, as classy as Stephen Roche and as briliant (and cantankerous) as Robin Guthrie - that other great Glaswegian.
    aspra nella virtu', dolce nel sacrificio
  • The Prodigy
    The Prodigy Posts: 832
    Hoy or Cooke, but Cavendish is so much earlier in his career you can't compare
  • Pork Sword
    Pork Sword Posts: 213
    Robert Millar by a long way... If only he wasn't such a dour individual. He was the ultimate professional though and I have nothing but respect for his achievements on a bike - even if he didn't win a major Tour!

    P.S. I've met Roger Hammond a few times and he's my pick of the current crop.
    let all your saddles be comfy and all your rides less bumpy....
  • cullen_bay
    cullen_bay Posts: 256
    i think it is a survey for riders in the last year. so robert millar is out
  • Pork Sword
    Pork Sword Posts: 213
    I would vote for Cav in that case then but he comes across as such a T*%T! :)
    let all your saddles be comfy and all your rides less bumpy....
  • Garry H
    Garry H Posts: 6,639
    Pork Sword wrote:
    I would vote for Cav in that case then but he comes across as such a T*%T! :)

    But so did Millar...
  • Pork Sword
    Pork Sword Posts: 213
    edited February 2009
    Perhaps time has clouded my memories of the complete miserable git that was Robert Millar! Cav should really know better though in this more media-savvy age...
    let all your saddles be comfy and all your rides less bumpy....
  • Garry H
    Garry H Posts: 6,639
    Pork Sword wrote:
    Perhaps time has clouded my memories of the complete misearble git that was Robert Millar! Cav should really know better though in this more media-savvy age...

    Nah, leave Cav as he is, he's much more entertaining that way, as was Millar in his time.
  • Tim Farr
    Tim Farr Posts: 665
    Not a racing cyclist within the usual parameters, but certainly the greatest British cyclist is Tommy Godwin - born 1912. In 1938-39 he averaged over 200 miles a day for 500 days, that is 100,000 miles in 500 successive days. Totally humbling. Look him up in Wikipaedia
    T Farr
  • Steve Kish
    Steve Kish Posts: 216
    Pork Sword wrote:
    Perhaps time has clouded my memories of the complete miserable git that was Robert Millar!

    Agree with this. PMSL when he went the wrong way on the sprint up some Tour hilltop finish!

    ...and when I read the bits about how he (allegedly) lives now, out came the ROFLcopters!

    I voted Nicole. Met her briefly at her homecoming in Wick. No ego - just a nice girl that rides a bike better than any other girl in the world. :D

    nicolecooke-2008.jpg
    AT MY AGE, I SHOULD KNOW BETTER !!!

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